FC Barcelona lost the first El Clasico of this season last Saturday, and are now four points behind the leaders Real Madrid and Girona. While the Catalans lost this match due to an injury-time goal from Jude Bellingham, it can be argued that Barcelona were the better team on the pitch for the most part of the game, and deserved to get all three points.
However, the German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan saw some problems with the team and criticized it right after the match. The German was particularly left unimpressed with the lack of anger and leadership in the team and said so in a post-match media talk.
Gundogan disappointed with Barcelona
While this was an unexpected outburst from the German against his own team, SPORT reports that this is not the first time that Gundogan has been disappointed with Barcelona.
His earlier resentment with the club did not have to do anything with the sporting side of the club, however. The report from SPORT claims that shortly after signing for the Catalan club, the German and his family felt they were not being supported enough by the club.
The German had been promised that he would be a blockbuster signing for them, but he did not feel he was being treated as such after arriving at Barcelona and also ended up conveying these feelings to the Blaugrane officials, who apologized to the German star for this.
Moving to a new city was particularly difficult for Gundogan owing to his child, who is only a few months old. The German was expecting to receive assistance from the club regarding finding housing, transportation, caring for his family, and putting up with the legal formalities. However, he did not receive any such help.
Stark contrast with Manchester City
The veteran midfielder felt this lack of help even more keenly as he had been treated fairly better by Manchester City, who undertake excellent efforts to help their players get settled.
With Barcelona being known as “more than just a club” Gundogan expected even more from the Catalans but was left surprised by the lack of effort made by the club in this aspect. Furthermore, the club’s inability to get him registered after his arrival further surprised him about the club’s internal functioning.
It needs to be reported here that Gundogan’s case is not peculiar in this regard, as other recent signings have also complained about not getting enough assistance from the club to get settled in the city. Some reserve team players even have to spend money from their own pockets to travel to the club for training.
